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ICAST spools up for Orlando show
Sportfishing interests from around the world will converge in Orlando, Fla., July 11-14 for the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades show, widely known as ICAST. If your business has any connection to the hook, line and sinker set, this is the show to attend.
The hidden costs of boat ownership
We all agree the industry needs to increase the number of first-time boat buyers to ensure healthy long-term growth. That’s going to require a bit of a course correction from our current trajectory.
Boats, horses and doubling down on innovation
The late Coast Guard captain and navigation expert Bill Brogdon used to say that if you want to stay dry, you should buy a horse, not a boat.
Making hay (while the sun shines) and keeping a weather eye
When the subject is the economy and business trends, I gravitate to numbers, percentages and the plethora of analysis over what they mean and where we’re likely headed.
Wires and pliers vs. the robots
I’ve been reading a lot recently about automation, creative destruction, artificial intelligence, globalization, reshoring, job loss and the like. So are you and me and my brother-in-law the boatwright going to be replaced before too long by robots? I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
A champion of waterfront eccentrics
The industry lost one of its most authentic voices and ardent practitioners late last year with the death of Jack Sherwood.
Forecast for 2017: Steady as she goes
Prediction time, once more. Barring an unexpected economic jolt or a black swan event, most signs point to continued growth in our industry in 2017.
Fostering diversity? ‘That’s our job’
With millennials marshaling on the horizon, everyone, it seems, has an eye on younger buyers. But here’s the thing: Younger, by definition, will also mean more diverse.
‘That’s a lot of boats’
Could we be in the midst of the new “good old days” without fully recognizing them? Perhaps. Time will tell, but you could certainly make a case for it.
The peril of ‘feature talk’
As we move into the heart of boat show season, much of the focus is on new boats and the latest technology and features that builders have packed on board. So it seems counterintuitive to suggest that builders and dealers not concentrate their marketing efforts on the latest and greatest improvements in propulsion, performance, layouts and the like.
So what exactly does innovation look like?
The post-recession mantra for success in new-boat sales has gone something like this: People want new, and they want innovation.
The fishing industry casts a wide net
Boating and fishing draw participants with the same strong magnet. Both activities promise fun, relaxation, family time, the great outdoors, adventure and so on.
Retention is tied to time on the water
Boats don’t like to sit for extended periods of time on the hard or in their slips. Things deteriorate faster during prolonged idleness — systems and parts stiffen, freeze, gum up and so on. Boats like to be underway.
The lifestyle transcends the boat’s price tag
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so, too, is affordability. After all, one person’s yacht is another’s runabout. It all depends on your perspective — and what you can afford.
Industry has the work, needs more workers
Early this year, when the financial markets were plummeting and the “R” word was back in the headlines and in conversations, I spoke with a boatbuilder who referred to himself and his colleagues as “canaries in a coal mine.”
The big-tent approach: Everyone is welcome
Success in our industry will continue to be determined by the economy and its allies, from consumer confidence and employment to the stability of financial markets.
Industry sees sturdy economy trumping turmoil in markets
Going into the Miami boat shows, economic uncertainty was again in the air, ratcheted up this time by concerns about the degree to which global economic problems might weigh on U.S. growth.
Value equation for objects of desire
So what are buyers looking for in a new boat today? Value? Innovation? Performance? All three and more, perhaps?
What’s over the horizon for the coming year?
Barring any unforeseen globe-rattling economic shocks, we should see a continuation of the slow to modest growth the industry has experienced over the last five years.
Today’s marinas are much more than a place to tie up
Boats are to our industry what elephants are to a circus. They’re the big draw, the main attraction.
Low-priced fuel is the lure; service secures the catch
The waters in the waning weeks of summer were brimming with boats. Warm, dry weather in the Northeast and elsewhere brought out boaters by the score.
Education debt figures to delay millennial boaters
The conversation took place maybe a dozen or more years ago at a Trade Only roundtable meeting at the Miami boat show. We were having a discussion with industry leaders on a wide range of issues, including the ascendancy of the baby-boom generation.
Two centuries of innovating and adapting
We casually toss around words like innovation, quality and adaptability today as if they were so much small change. But how many companies are really doing the hard work of innovation?
Bridging the generation gap with water, sun and sand
The question has been on the table for some time: What happens when the members of the large generation of baby-boom boaters swallow their collective anchors and exit stage left?